College and Research Libraries


tion with Champagne .3, whereas Paris 
metropolitan area .36, by its indentation 
and lighter type, is clearly a subdivision of 
the lle-de-France. At the same time, the col-
umnar arrangement of the geographical 
units makes the tables easier to use than the 
cramped paragraph arrangement of the 
fourteenth edition. In fact, the type has 
been reset throughout and the excessive dif-
ferences of size, weight, and style of type 
faces have been eliminated. 

In addition to typography, the terminol-
ogy has been gone over thoroughly and 
brought up to date. Not only has the spell-
ing been returned almost to normal, but in-
numerable outdated words and phrases have 
been replaced by current nomenclature. For 
example, changes have been made in the 
headings of the major classes: "Language" 
replaces "Filology," "Technology" is in place 
of "Useful arts Applied science," and " T h e 
Arts" for "Fine arts Recreation." Through-
out the schedules the editors have shown 
sound judgment in selecting terms that are 
in general use. More important is the addi-
tion of extensive annotations. These include 
definitions and scope notes, inclusion notes, 
instruction notes, and cross references. 

For a related series of numbers, centered 
headings have been introduced, with notes 
covering the whole sequence, which serve as 
a substitute for a comprehensive heading 
and obviate the need to repeat the notes 
under each individual number. Space pre-
vents a more detailed discussion of the an-
notations here but the editor, in his intro-
duction, does an excellent j o b of exposition. 

Because the major portion of these an-
notations is entirely new, and because the 
new typographical arrangement is so gen-
erous with space, the sixteenth DC shows 
an overall increase of 512 pages, despite the 
fact that the actual number of entries is cut 
by 13,436, or almost half of those in the 
fourteenth DC. As a result, the work has 
been divided into two volumes; any incon-
venience incurred by this separation is of 
minor importance when compared with the 
incalculable improvements of the new for-
mat. Some may even prefer to work with 
two separate volumes. 

T h e second volume consists primarily of 
the Relative Index, which has approximately 
the same number of entries as the index to 
the fourteenth edition but, like their corre-

sponding tables, the entries have been thor-
oughly revised and reworded. T h e material 
following the index, however, is quite differ-
ent from the fourteenth DC. Particularly 
noteworthy is the reprinting of the special 
author table for Shakespeare (one wonders 
why it was omitted previously) and the elim-
ination of both the Table for Systematic 
Botany (now printed in very abridged form 
in the Botany schedule) and the Supple-
mentary Tables. T h e Table of Form Divi-
sions, salvaged and sensibly expanded, has 
been placed immediately preceding the clas-
sification tables, a far more convenient po-
sition. Less understandable is the retention 
of the list of topics which may be divided 
geographically. Since instructions on divi-
sion are given in the tables themselves for 
each of the 322 places, their listing in 
straight numerical order in the second vol-
ume would seem to be of limited value. 

In conclusion, one can say that the six-
teenth DC shows a tremendous improvement 
in terms both of structural balance and of 
facility to the user. Although there is no 
complete solution to the basic conflict be-
tween advancing knowledge and a predeter-
mined scheme of classification, the editors 
have effected a compromise that probably 
will be welcomed in libraries committed to 
the Dewey Decimal Classification. Libraries 
which have found DC unsatisfactory in its 
basic principles have shifted to other sys-
tems.—Alison Smith, Metropolitan Museum 
of Art Library, Neto York. 

Studies in Germanics 
Germanistische Studien. By Arno Schiro-

kauer. Selections and introduction by 
Fritz Strich. Hamburg: Ernst Hauswedell 
& Co., 1957. 451p. 

From Arno Shirokauer's numerous studies 
in Germanics this valuable volume contains 
twelve which he published between 1924, 
four years after his first, and 1954, the year 
of his death. In its chronological arrange-
ment the selection is representative not only 
of Schirokauer's course of development, but 
of the scope and dimensions of his scholar-
ship. T h e first reprinted here is his early 

104 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



treatise on Expressionism in German poetry; 
and to Expressionism he returned with his 
last essay on Ernst Stadler. T h e emphasis of 
Schirokauer's research is on the German 
language and literature of the old period, 
the Middle Ages, and the dawn of modern 
times—his pioneering investigations and in-
terpretations ranging from the second 
"Merseburger Zauberspruch" to Otfrid von 
Weissenburg; Hartmann von Aue's legend 
of Poor Henry; Aesop's role in the literature 
of the Middle Ages; the history of the word 
"Herr;" the influence of the printing press 
on the development of a common German 
language; and in particular a scrutinizing 
examination of the "dark, uncertain law-
less, and problematical period" (Strich) of 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, i.e., 
the formation of Early New High-German 
leading from the decline of classical medie-
val accomplishment on to Luther. But there 
are, further, outstanding essays on the 
change of the significance of the novel; late 
Romanticism in the Grimm dictionary; and 
new problems of German philology of the 
most recent past. All of these studies are 
only the gems from the author's immense 
wealth. (Including radio broadcasts and book 
reviews, the bibliography of his publications 
appended to this volume lists 149 items.) 

Schirokauer is everywhere in pursuit of a 

living cultural totality. Above all, he is a 
philologist who, with a remarkable degree 
of sensibility, enters upon the form, sound, 
syntax, and rhythm of the living idiom as 
the literary scholar's primary objective. At 
the same time we are in every instance pre-
sented with a carefully drawn tableau of 
a many-faceted historical-philosophical-social 
unity. His writing is distinguished by this 
combination of the philological and aes-
thetic with a sense for the interrelation and 
mutual fertilization of formative factors in 
cultural history, as it is reflected in, and 
produces, expression. His encyclopedic 
knowledge of fact, his precision of detail and 
exhaustive accuracy are never statistical. 
Rather, they are animated by the flow of 
development as which Schirokauer saw the 
essence of his subject matter. This is also the 
mark of his style—a dynamic expressiveness 
in the refinement and clarity of his own 
vivid form. It rises itself to literary accom-
plishment, the perceptive and creative 
scholar-critic's art at its best. 

Fritz Strich, as Schirokauer's former 
teacher, was particularly competent to make 
the arrangement of this book, and to furnish 
an introduction in appreciation of the au-
thor's personality and achievement.—Ger-
hard Baumgaertel, University of Pennsyl-
vania. 

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